Blacklisted European lawmaker says Baku ‘will not succeed’

Member of European Parliament and President of the Artsakh Group Frank Engel addressed a letter to Azerbaijani parliamentarians refuting any illegality toward his and fellow parliamentarians’ visit to the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Republic, Asbarez reports.

Azerbaijani authorities on February 23 issued arrest warrants against European Parliamentarians Engel, Eleni Theocharous and Jaromir Stetina who visited Artsakh to monitor the Constitutional referendum on February 20.

They are wanted on the grounds of visiting Artsakh, as well as for acting as monitors of the referendum.

“This is a part of Baku’s campaign,” Stetina said following the Baku arrest warrants, “which began about a month ago when Russian [Israeli] blogger [Alexander] Lapshin was arrested in [the Belarusian capital city of] Minsk; this is a part of the intimidation policy of Azerbaijan.”

Engel’s letter is addressed to Chair of the Committee on Foreign and Inter-Parliamentary Relations of Azerbaijan Samad Seyidov, Head of the Azerbaijani Delegation to EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly Fuad Muradov, and Co-Chair of the EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Co-operation Committee Javanshir Fezyiyev.